Central Texas – Natural Musings

No Kings Rally In Austin, Texas

I had the October 18th No Kings Rally on my radar and calendar for weeks and planned to attend. I had not shown up at a political rally since January 21st 2017 when my daughter and I attended the Women’s March Against Trump at the Texas State Capitol. At that time I attended a volunteer session put on by the organizers and helped pass out signs (I forget what they said). I carried my own sign which read “To gather strength and give support”). I grew up in Austin and I remember my dad taking me, my brother, my 3 stepsisters, and my stepmother to see the Klan march at the State Capitol in 1965. I was 11. I remember my dad saying that if there was trouble, we should meet back at the car. I also remember being appalled that there were little children in klan garb. Over the years I have attended many rallys and protests at the Capitol, mostly to take photos.

This time I felt compelled to show up because I have been sitting on the sidelines doing nothing as our country needs help. I have sent a few letters to Congresspeople supporting the ones doing the good work, but other than keep track of what is going on, I have done nothing. It was forecast to be very hot that day and I kept going back and forth. Am I going or not? Finally I made my decision and planned to meet up with a friend there. My family members opted out for heat and other reasons. I would represent our family.

Well, folks, it was horribly hot! The temperature was 95 and it was humid and I don’t tolerate heat as well as in my earlier years. But, I brought water and wore a hat. I also wore my bluebonnet t-shirt (our state flower) and my monarch butterfly earrings. My husband and daughter dropped me off on the northwest side of the capitol and I joined others the few blocks to the grounds.

Our bags were checked for weapons before we were allowed on the grounds.

I wandered around looking at all the colorful costumes and signs and listened a bit to the speakers. I mostly gravitated to the shade of the old oaks on the grounds. My friend texted she was running late (we never did meet up). The Austin police were there and I spotted our police chief standing under a tree while one of her fellow officers spoke to a reporter. Our police chief and other officers did join the march.

I walked south hoping to get a shot of the march coming down Congress avenue. I had to dodge people on scooters and bicycles (including some cops riding on the sidewalk) as I waited. Chatted with some friendly folks. The energy was joyful and strong.

The March Begins at 11th st. and Congress Ave.

“Humanity Over Greed”

“World Without Caesars”

Guy In Banana Suit “Bananas For Democracy”

The costumes were fun, but I imagine very hot!

The pink costume is an Axohotl …Sorry the shot is not better…there were more Axohotl costumes there and many dinosaurs and a bee and a chicken…

I heard people singing Bye Bye Mrs. American Pie and drummers and there was a woman leading an aerobics dance group in the middle of the march (her face was very red!). I saw a banner that read “Raging Grannies” and yes, there were frog costumes.

One complaint I have is that there were people with dogs on leashes and one guy had a live chicken in a plastic box…it was way too hot to drag these little critters along.

On a positive note, there were multiple people working the crowd offering water and a woman handing out small American flags (I took one). And the age range covered the old and the young. There were people of all colors, some with rainbow flags, some with American flags, and some with an interesting hybrid Mexican and American flag. I saw people in wheelchairs and blind people with canes.

It was wonderful being there with all these beautiful people standing up for our country!

(full disclosure…it was hot and I only went as far as 5th street where I peeled off and walked west to hitch a ride back home with my husband and daughter)

*Check out info on the Axohotl at this link:

britannica.com/animal/axolotl

Good Ground

The first time my husband proposed to me I was stopped at a red light while driving him to the airport to fly off to a work conference. I said “Yes!” and managed to drive the rest of the way to the airport (we were only about a mile away when he proposed) and drop him off.

The second time my husband proposed a bit differently. We were out on a drive through the Hill Country outside of Austin. He was doing the driving this time and after we had been driving for awhile, he pulled over at a State Historical marker near Pack Saddle Mountain. The marker says that at said mountain in 1873, the last “Indian battle in this region” was fought when a group of 8 white men (I am assuming they were white) “routed a band of Indians thrice their number.”

I had been here before with my brother and Dad on one of my Dad’s long Hill Country drives, where he would point out various Texas landmarks and tell about the history.

Here is the historical marker:

Here is Pack Saddle Mountain:

On this occasion, my husband got out of the car, walked around and opened the passenger door, rummaged around in a brown paper bag, got on one knee, and asked me to marry him while holding out a toy ring. At least this is how we have remembered it all these years later. I again said “Yes” and we did eventually get married after I got a proper engagement ring.

Recently, on our way to San Angelo, we again stopped at this marker and took a few photos and reminisced.

Here are some flowers near the marker:

I wrote about our trip in my May and June blog posts, but didn’t tell about something that happened on this trip. On the way back to Austin, we stopped again at the pullout for this roadside marker and view of the mountain. We stretched our legs and I got back in the car. My husband comes up to my window and presents me with a pretty little flower! How sweet.

Here is the flower:

I thanked him and we did a little kiss. Then, while I was proceeding to put the flower in the center console area to take back home, I noticed some webbing. And then a little spider was dropping down out of the flower on it’s spinneret thread. I didn’t want a spider in the car with us and I didn’t want to hurt the spider. So, I scooped the spider up in the flower and put the flower at the base of a nearby tree to protect it and the spider from the wind.

Below is a photo of the replaced flower (circled in blue):

Talking about this recently…about the second proposal…he mentioned that it seemed like “good ground” when describing the place by the mountain. He said that was an old army term when they were looking at topographical maps. It meant a good place to be in terms of a being able to have the advantage in a battle. I don’t know who had the advantage in the 1873 battle…maybe the white guys since they won. The marker was defaced a few years back with grafitti reading “White history celebrates genocide.” It did get cleaned up and no trace of those words remain as of the last time I saw it this spring.

My husband and I will celebrate our 28th anniversary next month. Our marriage is on good ground and we have both worked at defending it over the years. Many small battles after which we both emerge with a stronger marriage bond. Happy Anniversary Honey!

Photos by B. McCreary

Check out a web page about the marker at The Historical Marker Database:

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=20643

Just A Name On The Map

(Or San Angelo Trip Part I)

On the 10 o’clock news I hear the weatherman say “And today in San Angelo it hit 100 degrees” and i see the name San Angelo on the big televised map of Texas. I have seen this name for years, but it meant nothing to me. I had never been there. I didn’t know anyone who lived there. And then one day, on Facebook, I saw a post about the San Angelo State Park. The poster had gotten some nice bird photos there. It was Spring, and I thought: “Road Trip.”

San Angelo is 205 miles to the northwest of Austin. We drove through rolling hills and interesting towns, the elevation gradually rising with each mile. The state park is on the outskirts of San Angelo. It has 7,677 acres and is a fairly new state park, having opened in 1995. There is a north shore area and a south shore area with a large reservoir made from damming up the Concho river. Check out the website for more information:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/san-angelo

Here are just a few of the other things we saw during our all day visit:

Texas Longhorn Cattle

American Bison

Blooming Mesquite

Prickly Pear Cactus And Daisies

Female Red Wing Blackbirds and White Wing Doves Up Close At The Bird Blind

Turkeys

Scissortail Flycatcher

And as we neared the park exit…

Road Runners Mating…note the lizard in the male’s beak. When they separated he still had the lizard…maybe to attract another mate?

We also saw deer and ground squirrels and a fox. And we saw other unidentified birds that I didn’t get shots of. This is a wonderful place and I recommend it to all who love spending time in the great outdoors. Now, when I see the name on the map, it will bring back the happy memories of all that I saw.

Embracing Joy And Grief

As March progressed, I anticipated and looked for signs of Spring. I saw many and knew more would be coming…more flowers blooming…birds singing and nesting. But, there was also a gnawing at my soul in the background of the beauty. My mother’s death date approached, March 25th. It has been 15 years since her death and the pain of grief has lessened. But, I want to hug her and share my life with her and I want her to see the physical beauty she left the world. The tears are coming as I write this even though I have been thinking about writing about it for quite a while.

On the other hand, I am glad my mother is not here to see the destruction of our country. She who supported civil rights with her body and soul…she who always rooted for the underdog. She was a proud American and she voted. I’m sure that if she saw the video of the woman being taken away by unidentified men to be locked up and silenced, she would have felt that woman’s fear in empathy.

A couple of days ago, March 29th, I attended a Birthday party for my friend Joan who was turning 80 that very day. This was also my Mother’s birthday. As we sang Happy Birthday to Joan, I was also singing to my mother. My mother’s death was just 4 days before her birthday and as she lay comatose on life support, we had sung Happy Birthday to her.

Okay! Enough grief for now! Here comes the Joy. In my blog posts of April 2019 and March 2021 I shared photos and a few words on one of my mother’s legacies, the lovely purple spiderworts she transplanted from her yard to mine over 20 years ago. From a literal handful of plants to the current abundance of them is one of nature’s miracles. What started as one purple clump in the backyard has now spread all over the yard and into the front yard. And both my brother and my friend Laura have transplanted some from my yard into their yards, where they are now flourishing.

As you look at these photos, remember that a small, positive action can take hold and grow. This is something to remember as we navigate our way through the coming months.

Beauty Among The Rocks

At The Trunk Of The Bur Oak

Near The Rotting Hackberry Stump

Near Philosopher’s Rock

Growing Low To The Ground

Pink Colored With Bee Gathering Pollen

With A Tiny Bee

With A Big Bee

So Pretty!

And there are many more photos of the flowers that I will not publish here…the flowers next to yellow dandelions …some next to orange crossvine blooms…the ones I can see in the front yard outside my office window…the view of them through my kitchen window…

May the natural world give you peace and strength each day. And remember that each positive act you take may grow and spread

Photos by B. McCreary taken in 2025

Lift Every Voice And Sing

I wrestle with what to write about. So many ideas. Do I post more pictures of critters from my yard? Do I write about more important to the world sorts of things, like the dismantling of our government? Ideas come and go and I jot down notes on a variety of topics. I write 3 legal pages of notes about my family’s relationship to music, from me to ancestors I’ve never met. I have been hearing more bird song lately and think maybe I should write about that. Or, I should finally write up my words about Harriet Tubman that I have been meaning to write up for about a year. It is Black History month. My mind keeps churning out subjects.

Serendipity strikes. Many things have entered my life in the past few months that seem connected.

Have you ever heard of the Rosenwald Colored schools? Neither had I until the past year. I had first run across them in a legal document among some old family papers.

The document reads in part:

“Be it known and remembered, that on this the 10th day of March A. D. 1926, I, Mrs. Ellen J. Buie, widow of H. H. Buie, deceased, have granted, bragined and donated, and by these presents, grant, bargain, donate, set over and deliver unto the Franklin Parish School Board, of Franklin Parish, La. herein represented by H. W. Gilbert, President, accepting this donation in all its parts and clauses, the following described property, towit:” A description of the property’s boundaries follows, and then this:

“To Have And To Hold the said property unto the said Franklin Parish School Board for the use and benefit only of the Rosenwald Colored School.”

My great grandmother was born in 1856 into a family that owned slaves. In the 1860 U. S. Slave Census her father owned 32 slaves aged 50 years old down to 6 months old. 66 years later she gave something back to the descendants of the people her family had enslaved. 2 acres for a school. When she was 14 she had been sent away to a convent school in St. James Parish. Maybe it was this experience that made her value education? And her daughter, my grandmother Mary, became a school teacher.

Here is a photo of my great grandmother Ellen Julia Copeland Buie (1856-1935):

But, the name Rosenwald meant nothing to me at the time I first looked at the document. Some months later, I happened to read a genealogy blog post about the Rosenwald schools. (there is a link to the blog at the end of this post). Then I happened to be showing the family document to my brother and I realized the importance of the name Rosenwald Colored School.

And then…I saw an advertisement for a special exhibit at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum that was about the Rosenwald schools in Texas. And they would be showing a film about Rosenwald on February 8th, with a panel discussion afterwards. I felt compelled to go. The film, by Aiva Kempner, was about 90 minutes long and told the story of Julius Rosenwald who was a rich philanthropist. Descended from Jewish immigrants who instilled quite the work ethic in him, he eventually bought Sears and Roebuck. He believed in giving back to the community. One of his projects was building schools for colored children in the southern states. He partnered with Booker T. Washington to do this. He built these schools during the Jim Crow era. “Separate but equal” was not equal at all. His generosity led to the building of thousands of schools to educate black children. He had three parts to these projects. One, he put up some money. Two, the community also raised funds, and Three, the community did the labor to build the schools.

This exhibit at the Bob Bullock museum only runs through February 23rd, so I urge all my Austin friends to go before it ends. There is also a former Rosenwald school near Bastrop that has been renovated. The panel discussion after the film talked about this. It is called the Hopewell school and we plan to visit it soon. (American Youthwork’s Youth Build Program put in some labor on this renovation).

Here is where the serendipity keeps on giving…

The film has interviews and photos of many African American celebrities from politicians to those in the arts…actors, singers, poets, composers, business people…people who either went to Rosenwald schools or benefited from Rosenwald’s other philanthropic projects: Rita Dove (poet), Maya Angelou (author, poet), Gordon Parks (photographer, filmmaker), John Lewis (politician, activist), Marian Anderson (singer)……

On the way home from the museum we stopped to pick up our mail. There was only one piece. The envelope’s stamp was a picture of John Lewis!

At Christmas I was gifted a book that I had never heard of and now am currently about 3/4 of the way through this novel. It is based on the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune. It follows their friendship and how they worked together to advance the rights of black people in this country. Two women with different skin colors working together. The authors of the book are two women, one white and one black. One episode in the book is about securing a public appearance for the singer Marian Anderson when the DAR refuses to let her sing in Constitution Hall in Washington, D. C. She ends up singing for a huge crowd at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The book is entitled The First Ladies and the authors are Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

Flipping through t.v. channels earlier this month I came across a film on PBS about the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. I had heard the name but was not familiar with his work. I learned that Maya Angelou’s title “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” is based on a line from one of Mr. Dunbar’s poems (“Sympathy”).

See what I mean? ….birds,singers, arts, education, history of our country and the struggles of blacks in this country…

There is a threat to dismantle and destroy the U. S. Department of Education right now…and any kind of diversity initiatives. What can we do? We can all take positive actions to lift up our values, be it contacting our representatives, to showing up in solidarity, to giving money to those organizations that lift up our sisters and brothers, neighbors and friends. No matter your political sympathies, the current destruction of our government will affect us all.

Take action with Love in your heart and as John Lewis is quoted:

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the Soul of America.”

*”Lift Every Voice and Sing” is the title of what is called The Black National Anthem and was written by James Weldon Johnson.

*I don’t know whether or not a Rosenwald School ever got built in Franklin Parish, Louisiana on the land my great grandmother donated.

Links:

donorschoose.org Donate directly to individual teacher’s projects

rosenwaldfilm.org

thestoryoftexas.com

americanyouthworks.org

http://creolegen.org/2014/10/13/the-unfortunate-lost-history-of-rosenwald-schools/

Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rita-dove

Squirrel and Hawk

While we were eating breakfast yesterday a bit of drama played out in our back yard. I like to face the windows to the back yard just so I can watch yard critters while I eat. My husband spotted a Cooper’s hawk sitting on our back fence…in the same spot I had seen it at dusk the day before. I got my camera and took a few photos through the one window without a screen (removed for just this purpose, to be able to focus my camera). A squirrel appeared moving along the back fence towards the hawk. I was about 45 feet away (that is what my husband’s range finder says) and just had my little Nikon Coolpix A900. But, I think I captured the scene.

Eastern Fox Squirrel approaching Cooper’s hawk on the Squirrel Highway

Squirrel Moving Closer to Hawk (see the tail behind the tree?)

Squirrel displaces Hawk

Hawk flies into nearby neighbor’s tree and then:

Hawk is back. It briefly spread both wings and it’s tail out, perhaps to look bigger. I didn’t get the shot before the wings closed back down. I think the squirrel was down in the bush behind fence at that point.

Squirrel is back!

Standoff!

Squirrel nonchalantly grooming it’s tail while hawk watches.

After this, the hawk flew to a side fence and then flew off out of the yard as another squirrel approached on a perpendicular squirrel highway. Blue jays had been squawking in the background but never got very close to the action.

Neither my husband or I had ever seen this kind of squirrel behavior before. Usually, when a hawk is around the squirrels are frozen against a tree trunk/branch or nowhere to be seen. The first batch of baby squirrels start being born in January and so maybe the squirrels are being more protective of the area? The squirrel was a male squirrel and so maybe just defending territory? The hawk is probably hanging around to get at the fat white winged doves that come to our feeder and may not prey on the squirrels. If the hawk attacked the squirrel I think both would give a good fight.

I had been hoping to come up with a fun political metaphor for this little drama we witnessed, but so far I have not.

I find much joy in observing small bits of interaction from the non humans around us. I hope some small joys of your choice come to you today and every day in 2025!

Hello To A River And More

(original photo by Jerry Larson and used with permission of Jerry Larson and the Waco Tribune-Herald)

Who is this sun glassed adventurer?

He is my baby brother, Robert Richard Downes, kayaking on the Brazos River. The photo also adorns the cover of one of Robert’s books entitled Hello to a River, which chronicles his canoe and kayaking trips.

Texas is home to some wonderful rivers that have inspired many adventurers. My brother is one of those. He drew inspiration from several generations of outdoorsmen and women in our family. I remember canoe trips we took in my father’s canoe starting when I was 5 and my brother was 4. That canoe was inherited from my dad’s grandfather and currently sits on saw horses in my back yard. Robert tells of his journeys on Texas waterways (and a few others). His book includes the writings of our father, John Richard Downes, who kept notes about the canoe trips he took on the Texas Colorado river. I contributed one short piece about me meeting my father at the end of his last canoe trip to bring him and canoe home.

Each trip down a river will be different. The traveler might encounter sudden storms, miserable heat, mosquitos and unexpected currents. But, along with the unpleasant, there is the pleasant: the helpful people met along the way; the sightings of birds and other creatures; the time spent with one’s own thoughts. The lone traveler becomes the philosopher.

This book is a fun and readable true story that will fit nicely on the bookshelf next to Robert Graves classic Goodbye To A River. And this is a good gift for lovers of Texas rivers and nature.

Here are Robert’s Other Books:

A collection of essays about the author’s adventures in Texas, Mexico and other Latin American countries. Gift this to anyone with an interest in foreign travel and Texas.

This is a true crime mystery about a case my brother worked on when he was employed by the U. S. State Department in Mexico. It is about the disappearance of American professor Nicholas Schrock while he was traveling to a summer teaching job in Guadalajara. Great details about the investigation and a good look inside of the everyday work of our government employees.

This latest book is a departure from Robert’s past work and is a fictional spy tale. Here is the opening line: “It all started innocently enough, at least to an outside observer, but appearances can be deceiving.”

These books are available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. (search for his full name “Robert Richard Downes” because there is another author with a similar name)

Here is the “About The Author” bio at the back of his latest book:

Robert Richard Downes is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer with over 37 years of federal service, the majority served overseas with the U. S. State Department. He lived and worked in Australia, Germany, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Venezuela as well as studying in Austria, Germany, and Hungary. After leaving the State Department, he returned to his native Texas where he fills his time reading, writing, kayaking, and volunteering for local charities and international organizations.

He can be reached at Longhornbarbooks@gmail.com.

Gift a book to someone you love!

Once Upon A Time In Austin, Texas

Once upon a time in Austin, Texas, maybe in the Spring of 1955, a little tow-headed baby girl was visiting the Texas Memorial Museum with her parents. As they entered the building, the little girl looked up, pointed, and blurted out “PISH!” Her startled daddy and pregnant mother followed their little girl’s pointing finger and saw a large, framed fossil of a fish mounted over the doorway to an exhibit room. The baby girl only knew to say a few words and they didn’t realize that fish was one of them. This incident became a family story that her parent’s would tell over and over throughout the years, much to the little girl’s delight.

A few years after, maybe 1962 or 1963, the little girl’s elementary school class visited this same place and she saw the fish fossil with new eyes. And her new eyes saw many other delightful sights.

Beautiful Windows Grace The Main Entry Floor-Second Floor (seen as you enter museum)

Pterosaur Replica Flying Overhead (cast from bone fossils found in Big Bend, Texas)

She marveled at the flying dinosaur over head and was a bit unnerved by the large Tyrannosaurus skeleton across the room. The guide said that it also had been cast from fossil bones found at Big Bend. She knew her parents had been to Big Bend because they talked about that place a lot. Maybe some day she would go there and see where these dinosaurs had roamed.

From this floor her class crowded into a hallway and one by one went down the steps to the first floor.

Staircase To Exhibits

Oh My! So much to see here! Meteorites from outer space… fossils and bones galore…

Star Fish Fossils

Label reads:

Starfish

Crateraster mccarteri

Skeletons in Slab

Cretaceous

Travis County, Texas

These had been found right here in her own county! The guide asked them to see if they could find the four legged starfish amongst all the five legged starfish.

Four Legged Star Fish Amongst Five Legged Star Fish

Sea Lily Fossil

The little girl didn’t know what a sea lily was, but she knew they must have been pretty. She remembered all the fossils she had collected on family hikes in the area…mostly snail looking critters that lived millions of years ago. It was hard to get her mind on how far back that was.

Around the corner was more…

Glyptodon

She had seen armadillos before, but never one that was as big as a small car.

Long-nosed Peccary Skeleton (Pleistocene, Bexar Co.)

And nearby was a giant that used to swim in Onion Creek. Scary to think of…the little girl had been to Onion Creek and seen little fish and frogs…things this creature might eat…this one was big enough to eat her.

Onion Creek Mosasaur (Cretaceous)

Mosasaur and Large Mammal For Size Comparison

Then the little girl and her class trekked up the stairs to the Third Floor. There were animals here that she recognized and knew were still around.

One Of Many Dioramas Depicting Texas Wildlife

Beetles, Butterflies, Moths

The little girl would remember this class field trip as one of the best ever fieldtrips. Better than the bakery where they got to sample fresh baked bread and better than the Coca Cola bottling plant.

Years later, when the little girl became a grown woman, she took her own little girl to visit the museum. She showed her the fish fossil and told the story.

Now the woman is an old woman. She recently visited the newly refurbished, repaired and reopened museum. Now, it is called The Texas Science And Natural History Museum. Some of it has changed. There is no longer a framed fish fossil over a doorway. But, much has stayed the same. During this visit she did not take the stairs. She and her husband chose the elevator.

Decoration Inside The Elevator (circa 1930’s)

She knew the building was old, but didn’t realize that it was built during the Roosevelt administration and that many of the fossils were found during excavations under WPA (Works Projects Administration) sponsorship. Thank You FDR!

The woman hopes everyone gets to visit this small, but mighty museum that tells some of the story of the natural history of Texas.

————————————————————————————————————————-

*If you are in Austin on Sunday September 22nd you can visit the museum for free on Austin Museum Day. There is a parking garage adjacent to the museum.

Museum website:

sciencemuseum.utexas.edu

*Photos by B. McCreary

*some info from museum Visitor Guide and some internet surfing

April Obsession

The anticipation was almost painful. Would she or wouldn’t she? Beginning in the Spring of 2012, a pair of Great Horned Owls (Bubo Virginianus) have been visiting The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to nest and raise their chicks. For the first time ever, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology set up a camera near the place that the female nested so they could record the behavior of the owls. And the best part would be that it would stream all day and night. She and her mate and chicks have been well photographed over the years. This live camera would capture even more of the behavior at the nest and would be available for people around the world to observe something few have seen. But, would she even come back this year? She did!

On March 1, 2024 Athena laid an egg in her nest above a stone archway near a sotol plant. On March 5th she laid egg number 2. I tuned in to see her multiple times, but unless she was eating or standing up and moving the eggs, I didn’t find it very interesting. So, I missed seeing her mate bring her meals.

On April 4th, the first egg hatched and I began to tune in quite often.

Athena On Nest April 4th (I did not see hatchling)

On April 6th the second egg hatched-

Day Old Chick Next To Egg With Chip Out (Mom off nest hunting?)

As soon as I saw that first chick, I was hooked on watching and began to tune in several times a day.

Athena In Rain Protecting Chicks (April 9)

Athena and Chick (only one visible-April 13)

I began to worry about the chicks when she was off the nest. What if something got them? I knew she could handle any predators that might come while she was there.

I enjoyed watching what Athena might bring back to feed the babies. I saw many types of food: snakes, maybe a frog, a large bird (grackle?), small birds, big rodents, small rodents, a rabbit, an opossum. And for the first time I really grasped the concept of owl pellets (regurgitated compressed pellets that contain undigestible bits such as bones, feathers, fur) when I saw big furry chunks being swallowed down by the hungry chicks.

I enjoyed watching the 2 chicks interact when mom was gone. How lonely it would be to be a lone chick.

The camera also has sound and at times I would hear one of the chicks (usually seemed to be the littler one) make a peep. I heard what sounded like an adult owl vocalization (sort of a low pitched peep). During the day I heard other birds, including crows and a hawk that would harass mom or dad when they were in nearby trees. At night I would hear frogs and toads from the nearby pond. I also heard chuck wills widows (night calling birds) several times. People talking and sometimes the screech of children could be heard during the day.

And then there were the night time events with loud music and partygoers whooping it up in the background. You could tell what kind of event or crowd it was by the type of music. I remember hearing “Dancing Queen” and “Baby I’m Yours” and once a young man singing the words “What a beautiful wedding!” The birds didn’t seem to be too bothered unless someone shouted loudly nearby.

April 14

Athena With Snake (tough skin)

Chicks Early Evening Before Camera Goes Into Night Mode (April 22)

Mom Taking Off -Note Tail Hanging Out From Chick’s Mouth (April 23)

Watching the development of feathers was fascinating, as was their changing behavior. The chicks would peck at debris in the nest or the dried sotol leaves. Saw the littler one lunge at something that I could not see. They became more active and alert as the weeks went by. The smaller one seemed to have a sort of little sibling personality…I may be projecting here!

On April 24th I checked in at 8:13 a.m. (yes, I kept lots of notes as time went on) and there were just the chicks in the nest. Usually I would see mom up there in the morning. The chicks were grooming themselves. At 9 a.m. they were resting.

9:22 a.m. – Still no momma

10:22 a.m. No momma

3:45 p.m. No mom!

7:05 p.m. No mom!

Yes, I was worried! Checked in at 8:50 p.m., (bigger chick standing tall and alert); 9:46 p.m. (little chick pecking at stuff), 10:29 p.m., and finally at 10:39 p.m. I turned it off and went to bed worrying about all the things that might have happened to mom.

April 25th at 8:08 a.m. -Yay! Athena is back with her babes and I relaxed. I was identifying too much with these little critters. The day before, I started to experience some emotional flashbacks of fear of desertion and being left behind! As if I was a young child and not an old lady.

You may have noticed that I have not talked about dad. I know male owls bring meals to mom when she is on the nest and other observers have seen dad in nearby trees. One night I saw an owl fly in on the left side of the sotol and drop off a rodent and leave without tearing it into pieces and feeding the chicks. Mom usually flies in to the front of the nest area, so maybe this was dad. That time I just saw the chicks peck at the rodent a bit, since they had not quite learned to rip things apart. At a later date I saw the chicks having a tug of war with a small rodent. And last night I saw a rodent being dropped off from the side and that may have been dad.

If you look close you can see a tail and hind legs of a small rodent the adult is carrying.

The story is not yet over. The babes have not fledged yet. It will be pretty soon and you can still watch them by going to:

Wildflower.org/visit/athena-the-owl

In the meantime I will be a bit obsessed still and worry about them and see owl images in such things as my back fence.

The real owl images were taken from screen shots on my Ipad or from my Nikon of screen images.

I am so thankful for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for offering this opportunity.

Check out Cornell’s website at:

Allaboutbirds.org

Embracing Spring

Last month I was expecting Spring and actively looking for signs of the early anemones. I looked for them everyday in my front yard. On February 18th I saw the first ones!

A Host of Anemones At The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (February 2024)

The first day of Spring is celebrated in North America on the Spring Equinox, I am celebrating Spring now because so much fresh life is emerging all around. Green shoots are coming up from the ground and sprouting from tree branches. And there is the blooming of flowers…from the pinky purple buds on my redbud tree to the purple spiderwort blossoms popping out every day. The days are getting longer and warmer. Birds are becoming more vocal and active. Some will soon leave to breed farther North (white throated sparrow seen below), while we welcome other species home from their wintering grounds in the South. I am guessing some of you have already seen some purple martins (early Spring arrivals). Other critters are emerging on sunny days (lizards, snakes, insects)

White Throated Sparrow At Wildflower Center (ready to fly North to spend the warmer months)

Carolina Wren Wondering What Their Significant Other Is Up To

Significant Other Taking A Dust Bath In Potting Soil In Our Raised Garden Bed

I am embracing them all in my heart and soul, these little joys of Spring.

And, No, I didn’t forget! The Blue bonnets are starting to bloom!

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (February 2024)

(all photos taken by B. McCreary)